When American International Group, the country's biggest insurance company, announced two weeks ago that it would have to undergo a major "restructure," Tom King, owner of Sutter Surplus Sales, pulled all his stock market investments off Wall Street and parked them in the bank: Washington Mutual, to be exact.

When WaMu's federal seizure and sale to JP Morgan Chase was announced only days later, "I moved it all to a local bank," said King, 45.

Now, he is afraid the lack of congressional approval for a banking industry bailout package will lead to a crash in consumer confidence.

"I'm holding my breath," said King, whose store in downtown Marysville sells outdoor sports gear. "My house, my business, my kids' education — I've got everything riding on this."

King and several other local residents and business owners shared their feelings with the Appeal Democrat Monday about the failure of the $700 billion package that had been proposed to prop up America's biggest lending institutions.

Don Lizardo, who works for Clark Pest Control, was in his company truck between appointments, listening to a radio call-in show. The subject was the bailout's failure.

Lizardo said he thinks a bailout will be necessary for the U.S. to avoid complete economic devastation.

"It's not fair to taxpayers," he said. "The people who didn't go out and buy more than they can afford — they're still going to be paying. But we have to bail 'em out," he said. "It's pathetic."

Lizardo said he is scheduled to sign papers on his first house on Tuesday — his 35th birthday. The home in East Marysville was foreclosed on, he said.

"I'm lucky to be in a position to take advantage of — I hate to say this — somebody else's misfortunes," he said. "You can buy a house right now for half of what it's worth."

"I better borrow that money before the banks all go under," he said.

Sonya Escobar of Yuba City had enough consumer confidence Monday to go shopping at the Yuba Sutter Mall.

She said she believes inaction by Congress would be disastrous, but she worries that the bailout proposal had been drawn up too hastily.

"I just think it was an act of desperation to do what they could, at the moment," she said. "I hope they thought out everything."

Mohammad Hossain, who sells sunglasses at the mall, said that a bailout would reward those who were most irresponsible.

"Those who are suffering, they won't get the benefit; only the banks will," he said. "What about people with mortgages?"

Joe Barnes, 58, paid his last mortgage 10 years ago, he said, and owns his house in Marysville outright.

The City Public Works employee was trimming grass on a median strip Monday. He said he doesn't think the country should bail out its financial institutions with government money.

"Those big shots (CEOs) are gettin' raises and that ain't right," he said. "They're laying off people. There's no jobs."

"People are going to have to get some common sense," said Lavina Blaser, 62, co-owner of The Brick coffee house in Marysville.

"Before we throw more money at it (bank failures), let's make sure they (responsible parties) are paying their fair share of it," she said. "I'm tired of people who think they should be taken care of just because they're breathing air."

According to King, consumer confidence is all that stands between most small business owners and complete financial ruin.

He holds out hope that an amended package will eventually win congressional approval.

"But I'm very upset that we're in this predicament to begin with," he said. "I can't afford to pay more taxes to support a CEO who gets a multimillion dollar bonus package for running his company into the ground because he knows the government's gonna bail him out."

After all, he said, "They aren't gonna bail me out if I make a mistake."

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Nancy Pasternack at 749-4712 or at npasternack@appealdemocrat.com. Appeal-Democrat reporter Howard Yune contributed to this report.